1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information transmission control apparatus for transmitting the same information to a plurality of destinations, and an information reception apparatus for receiving the information from the information transmission control apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an information transmission control apparatus for relaying information sent through a channel from an information provider apparatus to a plurality of destinations, and an information reception apparatus for receiving the information and notifying the user of the information reception.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In information communication in the sophisticated information society today, the same information is often transmitted from an information provider to a plurality of receivers simultaneously via a wired or wireless channel. For instance, nowadays it is common for the information provider to transmit the same message to a plurality of pagers that have the same group ID. Such communication is generally referred to as broadcasting.
A representative of an information transmission control apparatus used for transmitting information from the information provider is a personal computer equipped with a communication facility, while a representative of an information reception apparatus for receiving the information and notifying the user of the reception is a portable telephone terminal, a personal computer, or a pager.
In conventional information reception apparatuses, the user is notified of the reception immediately after the information is received. Here, notification means, such as bell sound outputs and vibrations, are used. Then, the received information is displayed on a screen of each information reception apparatus.
If the received information allows or requires the user's reply, the user transmits his/her reply to the information provider using a certain communication means.
Thus, when a broadcast message that allows/requires a reply is transmitted from the information provider apparatus to the plurality of information reception apparatuses, a plurality of replies are likely to be returned to the information provider apparatus more or less at the same time. Such concentration of replies causes the load beyond the maximum instant processing capacity of the information provider apparatus, and results in a traffic jam or a breakdown in the communication lines.
In order to solve the above problem, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 8-275140 discloses a two-way program broadcast method, a two-way program response method, and a response apparatus. In this disclosure, when the users of the plurality of response apparatuses, which correspond to the plurality of information reception apparatuses described above, respond to received information, each response apparatus uses a different random number to delay the time of transmitting the response. By doing so, the plurality of responses are transmitted to the provider apparatus at different times.
Thus, even when the provider apparatus simultaneously transmits the same information to the plurality of response apparatuses and the users of the plurality of response apparatuses perform the response operation more or less at the same time, the responses are not returned to the provider apparatus all at once.
With the above technique, each response is transmitted to the provider apparatus after a different delay time period set using the random number has elapsed since the user's response operation. However, if the response is a request for further information, the user has to wait a long time before receiving the requested information from the provider apparatus, due to the time delay between the user's response operation and the response transmission.
Thus, the above conventional technique is effective when the communication ends with the user's response to the received information, but not effective when the user requests further information with the response. For example, the above technique is not suitable when a provider apparatus broadcasts a menu for available sets of information to a plurality of information reception apparatuses, and a user of each information reception apparatus selects one of the sets of information from the menu and returns a response that requests details of the selected set of information to the provider apparatus.